Protesters are seen outside the Kochs' annual fundraising meeting in this YouTube screenshot. (YouTube)

(Newser)
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Thrust into the spotlight after years of operating in the political shadows, Charles and David Koch are fighting back, Politico reports. They’ve hired a crack PR team that has worked with GOP heavy hitters like Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and encouraged attendees of their uber-secret fundraising meeting to talk to the press, an unprecedented step. But they also erected blockades to prevent documentary crews from filming attendees, hired private security to tail "suspicious" resort guests, and threatened to arrest a Politico reporter found in the resort café.

They’ve also slapped a $100,000 lawsuit on some young environmentalists who pranked them. The brothers have been caught off-guard by their newfound notoriety. “They somehow thought that they could run tens of millions of dollars in ads, but fly under the radar screen,” says a source close to them. “So they’re scrambling now, because they weren’t nearly as prepared for the fallout as they should have been.”

that explains nothing but a guilty conscience. this information does have an eerie coincidence with their new "PR campaign". hey....wait a minute...are you on the payroll?

Dro_Trebor

Feb 2, 2011 4:12 PM CST

We are about to learn that the Koch Brothers are the greatest philanthropists the world has ever seen. Mother Teresa used to send them gift baskets at Easter. And they've been secretly working to normalize relations between China and Tibet. Oh, and they both have puppies. Seriously, though, a report from last year does show these guys donating some $600 M to non-political entities/causes, including: New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell: $15 million M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: $25 million The Hospital for Special Surgery: $26 million Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: $30 million Prostate Cancer Foundation: $41 million Deerfield Academy: $68 million (a prep school attended by David) Lincoln Center's NY State Theater: $100 million Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $139 million (David got his degree there)

NailinPalin

Feb 2, 2011 2:59 PM CST

Yo Koch bros: Tell your PR flacks that "hired private security to tail "suspicious" resort guests, and threatened to arrest a Politico reporter found in the resort café" is bad PR. Yo David Koch : since you hate liberals so much how 'bout you get out of NYC. Oh I forgot. "Conservative America" is a snoozefest.